I am pleased to finally start this thread. I hope this forum serves as an interactive blog to document and educate anyone interested.

A friend and I rented a 10ft uhaul truck to transport this IBC water tote aquaponics system from its former owners establishment.



It is pictured here, set up in my backyard, in Southeast Las Vegas.

The purchase proved to include everything I needed including about 25 five to six inch long gold fish. I transported the fish in a relatively small cooler full of their native water. They did not have much room to swim around but I did offer them some oxygen through an aquarium air pump.

After assembling the system to its pictured setup I began filling the middle sump tank with water from my rubbermaid garden hose and attached boogie brew chlorine filter. I began to pump the water from the sump into the grow bed. I wanted to make sure the plumbing and bell siphon had no flaws. They passed my testing and inspection, so I began to fill the fish tank.

After letting the water acclimate to air temperature overnight I decided to move the fish into their comfortable new 250 gallon home. I added some new found tank water into the cooler and waited one hour before I moved them over. I'm not sure if fish should be added to the system just yet but I feel I must get them more space quickly. Later I noticed they were closer to the surface. I threw in a small handful of koi food and watched them happily eat away. 9 hours later they still look happy.

Since this picture, I have plumbed the swirl filter into operation. It drains into the sump tank.

My water testing for today
PH = 7.6
Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrites = 2.0 ppm
Nitrates = 0

Considering how much tap water I added, I am very surprised to see such a high number of Nitrites in the system. The PH level seems to be pretty consistent with our tap water. A brief google search made me think 2.0 ppm nitrites shouldn't harm my goldfish but I will keep an eye on it.